EPA Ghana Adopting A Market-Based Approach Towards Reducing Biodiversity Loss In The Country

Ghana continues to lose its biodiversity and ecosystems services despite the Environmental Protection Agency’s application of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as a major tool for the protection of biodiversity and pollution control through the Environmental Assessment Regulations, 1999 (LI1652). To this end, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has therefore adopted a market-based approach towards addressing the country’s biodiversity loss with the introduction of a Biodiversity Offset Business Scheme (BOBS) being developed and implemented with the private sector in Ghana. Since 2014, the EPA has been working with the private sector to promote collaboration for the development and implementation of biodiversity business and offset scheme in Ghana.

With co-funding support from The John A. Kufuor Foundation and Business Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund, DANIDA, and USAID in 2015 and 2018 respectively, the EPA in collaboration with the Advocacy for Biodiversity Offsetting Group (ABOG) comprising private and public institutions have put in place a framework and guidelines (currently being pilot-tested) for the implementation of a BOBS in the country. This offset scheme provides a more critical methodology by which biodiversity is assessed as part of the EIA procedures and also, ensures full mitigation of the impacts of undertakings.

BOBS is designed to mainstream biodiversity conservation actions into broader economic development activities and decision making processes in Ghana. The scheme ensures responsible management, sustainable utilization, and equitable benefit sharing of biodiversity resources. It also encourages businesses to take responsibility for its impacts and generate additional private sector investments in the conservation that add to the available resources contributing to the conservation by governments’ overall objectives for biodiversity conservation.

BOBS has classified offsets into two packages for project proponents. They are the Primary Offset and Secondary Offset.  Primary Offset Packages have been categorized into AI, A2, A3, A4 involving Habitat Restoration, New Landscape Creation, Ecosystems Enhancement Projects and Species Habitat Protection respectively. While the Secondary Offset packages have been categorized into B1, B2, B3, B4 involving biodiversity offset related research, public policy, education and awareness and skills training.

The developed biodiversity offsetting guidelines gives guidance to proponents and offset providers in delivering a quantifiable amount of biodiversity benefit and ecosystem services to offset the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem resulting from undertakings or otherwise development projects. The biodiversity assessment conducted by yet-to-be trained bio-banking assessors, takes into account on both the impact and offset sites, four critical elements ­— the areas, ecosystem services provided, habitat distinctiveness and habitat conditions.

The areas are measured in hectares, while the ecosystem services measures parameters for provisioning, supporting, regulating and cultural services respectively. The habitat distinctiveness and condition observes the significance (either low, moderate, high and exceptional) of the habitat in terms of species richness, endangered species status, and nature of disturbance to the habitat which reflects its condition as either poor, degraded, good or excellent.

The Increased Advocacy for Biodiversity Offsetting (I-ABOG) project was launched in July 2018 to increase public awareness on the EPA’s BOBS and pilot-test the prepared biodiversity offsetting guidelines with some selected institutions expected to undertake offsetting as part of their EIA permitting conditions. This is intended to shape the guidelines within the context of the country’s ecological landscapes and socioeconomic situations, whilst validating the offset packages and parameters of the Ecosystems Service Index (ESI) for calculating the biodiversity credit of the offset site. Over the period, local community and grassroots sensitization exercises have been conducted by ABOG and EPA with District Assemblies across different regions of the country including Ashanti, Eastern, Ahafo, and Greater Accra Region. There have also been engagements with the leadership of Parliament to also sensitize law makers on the BOBS and offsetting guidelines.

The goal of the EPA led scheme is to link businesses to achieve biodiversity gains on the ground with respect to species composition, habitat structure, ecosystem function, livelihoods and cultural values associated with biodiversity. As the scheme stimulates demand and consumption of services and products beneficial to biodiversity conservation through a structured market mechanism, it also creates new incentives for private landowners, local communities and entrepreneurs to develop and manage land to generate valued tradable biodiversity credits for the offset market. Using a real-time online portal, EPA certified biobanks and biodiversity credits are traded by registered entities under the scheme and could be purchased to compensate directly for the impacts of an undertaking or as investment for resale at a later date or purchased in advance of project approval which can be resold at a later time if not used or acquired to build a portfolio of credits to offset future development.

Market-based approach to biodiversity conservation is growing as the potential for biodiversity offsets to help achieve sustainability, is increasingly being appreciated globally. A number of companies are identifying a business advantage in developing processes to integrate biodiversity into their operations, they are also seeking market-based solutions and opportunities to operate more sustainably.

By Advocacy for Biodiversity Offsetting Group (ABOG)